Mancini: I'll feel stupid if Manchester City sack me

The Italian has criticised the club's refusal to respond to speculation that he will be replaced by Malaga coach Manuel Pellegrini following defeat to Wigan in the FA Cup final

By Greg Stobart at Wembley

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini says he will feel “stupid” if reports that he will be sacked and replaced by Malaga coach Manuel Pellegrini turn out to be true.

City lost 1-0 to Wigan in the FA Cup final at Wembley on Saturday following speculation that the Italian would be sacked following a difficult season in which the club failed to retain the Premier League they won last year.

Mancini insisted he was unaware whether there was any substance behind the reports but criticised the club for failing to respond to the stories surrounding his future, which first surfaced at the turn of the year.

“If it’s true, I’m stupid because I didn’t know anything about this,” said Mancini. “But I’m sure I work with serious people and I’ve done a good job even though we lost this final.

“If it’s not true, you wrote a lot of stupid things in the last six months and especially in the last two weeks.

“The only thing is you’ve been speaking about this for six months and too much in the last two weeks. And I don’t know why the club didn’t stop this because I don’t think this is true.

“I don’t think [I will be sacked] but I know football and in football anything can happen.

“I don’t need to talk about this with the club. For me, there’s no reason to do so. I have four years on my contract, not one.”

City have ended the campaign without a trophy but Mancini again insisted it had been a successful season, claiming the club were hampered by poor dealings in the summer transfer market.

Mancini added: “I think our target when we started the season was to try to win the Premier League again, but our mistake started in the summer transfer market.

“We didn’t improve our team enough. After you win a Premier League, the second year is more difficult. We had a lot of problems this season, we had some problems because we lost players in key moments like Yaya for one month.

“I am personally disappointed because I play to win every year but I know football enough to understand why we didn’t win this year. I’m the manager and I take all the responsibility.

“I don’t think when Manchester United lost the Premier League last season they had all this chaos that we’ve had. If we get second position, I still think it’s a good season for us.

“How many clubs did better than us this season? One - Manchester United.”